


No reason to stay

by KaylenaKey



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Caring Carlos, Concerned Carlos, Drunk TK, M/M, Mentions of alcohol, Regretful TK, Relapsing, TK confesses, Talk with the parents, Vomiting, a lot of crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29569689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaylenaKey/pseuds/KaylenaKey
Summary: Carlos is shocked when a drunk T.K. walks into his condo at nearly 4 in the morning and he is desperate for answers.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 48
Kudos: 166





	1. Everything was doing fine. Now, it all crashes again.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyyy :)  
> This will be a 2-part fic. The second part will be uploaded sometime tomorrow.
> 
> Hope my english is okay.
> 
> Enjoy ❤️

Carlos felt relieved when he entered his condo after a long shift. It was 3 in the morning and he just wanted to go to sleep, but the rush of his last call hasn't eased yet and he found himself unable to sleep. So he went downstairs again, grabbed a beer from the fridge and mindlessly switched through the programs of his TV, hoping to find something else than teleshopping.

20 minutes later - he had started to occupy himself with his phone instead - the front door opened surprisingly, showing his disheveled boyfriend. The time on his phone said 3:40 am and Carlos was confused on why T.K. was here.

When he saw him stumbling into the room, Carlos got up and rushed to him, catching him before he could trip on the threshold.

Carlos came to a shocking realization when he smelled the unmistakable odor of alcohol on his boyfriend.

Soon after, T.K. started sobbing: "I'm so sorry Carlos."

"What happened?"

"I'm so sorry", T.K. repeated, but Carlos didn't consider himself satisfied by that.

He had no idea what was going on. T.K. was supposed to stay at his parents' house, since he knew that Carlos would be gone until 3 am, so why was T.K. here now, drunk out of his mind? Where had he been?

"Where were you?"

"I don't know."

T.K. was slurring strongly and Carlos could only guess how much alcohol was in his system right in that moment. Or maybe the man in his arms just wasn't used to the liquid anymore.

"How much did you have to drink?"

"I don't remember. Not a lot. Maybe too much?"

T.K. was _so_ irritated. All he knew was that he was in Carlos' arms, but he couldn't remember how he got there or where he had been before. Did he walk? Or did someone drive him there? Maybe he ran, because he felt _exhausted_. His thoughts got interrupted when he heard the ever-so-gentle voice of his boyfriend, right next to his ear.

"Let's get you to bed, alright?"

"I think I need to vomit."

Carlos grabbed his waist as he led him to the bathroom.

"Okay, then we'll go to the bathroom first."

  
They spent 10 minutes in the bathroom, T.K. violently throwing up whatever was left of the alcohol. Carlos stayed with him the whole time, rubbing his back, scratching his scalp, wiping his sweat. T.K. felt like dying. Nothing was left of the satisfying feeling he's had a few hours ago. Now he just felt empty. Even more so than before he started drinking. He felt nothing but pain and regret.

After being done with heaving, he leaned his head against the toilet seat and closed his eyes. The cool synthetic on his forehead was soothing and he finally allowed himself to take a breath.

"Come on, get up, we need to get you to bed", Carlos exclaimed after a moment, standing up next to him, motioning for him to do the same.

T.K. just shook his head slowly, not bothering to open his eyes as he mumbled: "I can't get up."

Because it was true. He couldn't feel a single bone in his body. He was convinced that he couldn't move a limb if he wanted to. His mind was somewhat clear, but his body couldn't comply to anything he commanded it to do.

Carlos was having none of it. He put his hands under T.K.'s armpits and lifted him onto his feet carefully.

"I'll help you. You can't sleep here. C'mon."

Somehow, they made it all the way upstairs and into bed. As soon as T.K. laid down, he was asleep. Carlos put the blanket around him and watched him for a few minutes.

What the hell happened?

He walked downstairs again and rang Owen. He didn't care that it was in the middle of the night, he needed answers, and he needed them now.

"Carlos, it's 4 in the morning, what the hell?", came Owen's grunting voice after a seemingly endless string of rings, and Carlos sighed. He was well aware of the time, thank you very much.

"I thought he was supposed to stay at your house tonight?"

"What are you talking about?", Owen asked with a sleepy voice, sitting up on his bed.

"T.K.!" As if it wasn't obvious who he was referring to.

Owen sighed before he answered in a calm voice: "T.K.'s here, Carlos."

Carlos wanted to laugh. If that was the case, he wouldn't be walking around the living room like a crazy person.

"No, he's laying in my bed right now, sleeping off his hangover!"

"What?"

Owen sounded confused and surprised, and a lot more aware now. He finally got off the bed to make his way over to his son's room, opening the door, just to find an empty bed. He was concerned.

"Oh god Carlos, please tell me he's okay! We told him some -apparently unpleasant- news today and he kind of freaked out. But he was in his room when I went to bed at 11! Please tell me he's okay!"

"I'm not so sure Owen. He didn't just have a few drinks, he's full on _drunk_! I'm amazed he managed to even get here."

"Shit. I'm coming over."

"Owen, he's sleeping. He won't wake up now. We can talk in the morning, I'll drive him to your place. But in his current state he won't be able to give much clearance."

Carlos tried to be reasonable. Waking T.K. now wouldn't help any of them. He heard how unsure the man was earlier when he tried to get his own questions answered. Waking him now and interrogating him would be a total waste of time!

"You're right. Then in the morning. Thanks for informing me."

"Hey, that's what we agreed on, remember?"

The _had_ agreed on it. After Owen found out about their relationship, they made a deal to tell each other if something happened. Whether it was if something happened on a call that triggered T.K., or just little things like where he would sleep at night or when he would leave his parents' or Carlos' place. It made both Owen and Carlos more relaxed, knowing that T.K. was okay. Not that the man could know about any of it, of course.

"Goodnight Carlos. Take good care of my boy."

"Of course. Good night."

They hung up on each other, and Carlos made his way upstairs, laying down next to T.K. who seemed to be having a calm sleep. Carlos found himself staring at the young man next to him once again. He didn't know what those 'unpleasant news' were about, but one thing he was completely sure of:

Tough times were ahead.


	2. Wanting to feel wanted is the loneliest feeling ever.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> athazagoraphobia  
> (n.) the fear of forgetting, being forgotten or ignored, or being replaced
> 
> T.K. and Carlos drive to the Strand's to properly talk about the issue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the lovely comments on the last chapter, I love reading them ❤️
> 
> This was sweet but also hard to write! I hate seeing T.K. in pain, but that's like part of who he is at this point!?

T.K. woke up pretty late the next morning. He felt a sharp pain radiating through his head and grunted, rubbing his temple as the events of last night came up.

Panicked, he opened his eyes and calmed down a bit as he realized that, luckily, he was at Carlos' place, not in some street corner or in some stranger's bed.

He glanced at the alarm clock: 12:30 am.

Next thing he noticed was that he was alone in bed. Which was no surprise, Carlos was known to be an early bird, never staying in longer than 9 o'clock.

He jumped off the bed and sprinted into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. After a quick look into the mirror to confirm that he looked like shit, he sat down in the bathtub, pulled his knees up to his chest and started sobbing.

Carlos had heard the commotion upstairs and abandoned the kitchen to check on his boyfriend.

"T.K.?", he asked in a practiced calm voice as he came to a stop in front of the door. He could hear him cry and it broke his heart. "T.K., hey. Please talk to me."

"I'm so sorry Carlos!", it came from inside. Yeah, they were past that already.

"I know you are. Please come outside, so we can talk about it."

He didn't receive an answer.

"T.K.? I'm coming inside, okay?"

When he didn't get an response once again, he decided to just go for it.

Unsurprisingly, the door was locked. He sighed.

"T.K., please open up."

"I can't. I fucked up so bad, Carlos!"

"We'll figure it out. Don't hide, please. I want to help you, baby."

T.K. didn't want to face him just yet, but he knew that Carlos wouldn't leave the door until he came out. So, with shaking legs, he stepped out of the bathtub again and unlocked the door.

Before he could even comprehend what was happening, Carlos burst through the door and took him into his arms.

"I'm such a fuck-up, Carlos!"

"No you're not. This is a major step-back, but we'll figure it out, I promise. Now can you please tell me what made you do that in the first place?"

"My mom's pregnant..."

Carlos gripped him tighter. Oh, damn. That was probably the last thing he'd expected. Owen could've _told him_ that last night! He suddenly wasn't so surprised about this relapse anymore.

He soothed T.K. enough for him to make it down the stairs and got some breakfast into him.

Afterwards, they didn't waste much time and drove straight to the Strand's house.

  
Carlos stayed by T.K.'s side through the whole conversation. His parents had already been waiting for them, and led them straight into the living room to sit down at the couch.

For a hot minute, nobody said anything. But T.K. could feel three pairs of eyes on him, and he knew they all expected him to explain why he did what he did.

"This is gonna sound so dumb...", he mumbled, still not meeting anyone's eye. His shoes looked very interesting too. And oh, was that a new carpet?

"I don't want you to have this baby."

Owen and Gwen didn't look too surprised by that. "Yeah, you made that very clear yesterday. We just want to know why. You always wanted a sibling, why can't you be happy for us?"

T.K. felt like he was in some kind of weird movie. Were they really asking that? How could his parents be so oblivious? They should know best that this was a very bad idea.

"Yes. I always wished for a sibling. Someone that would be here when you once again weren't. I've felt _alone_! My whole life long. So of course I wanted a sibling, but that was to that time. Now? Now I'm 26, and you wanna start all over again? I just got both my parents back and a healthy relationship with both of you, you finally _see_ me, and now you're telling me there's another baby on the way? Another distraction that will draw you away from me once again? I'm not ready for that! And I am aware of how selfish this sounds!"

T.K. was full-on crying for the second time that day, and he felt ashamed for it. He hated how much this was affecting him. Carlos was trying to comfort him as best as he could, sliding his thumb over T.K.'s hand, but he felt like his whole world was falling apart. He was about to lose his parents once again, both of them this time, and he couldn't handle it.

"I just got both of you back", he repeated. "After almost 20 years! And this baby... it's gonna change everything. I mean- you'll _forget_ about me as soon as it's here. I know you will. This baby won't come with all the baggage I did. You won't need to drive them to therapy twice a week, won't have to work them through their panic attacks. You won't have to _revive_ them three times after they OD'ed! They will be perfect, and you'll... you'll forget about me."

Shit. T.K. didn't mean to say all of that. He didn't want this to sound so self-centered. He was planning on telling them why it would be a bad idea for them and the baby, not why it would be a bad idea for him! But he felt all his energy leave him and he knew he couldn't add anything else. Now he just wanted to go home with Carlos and bury himself under blankets, hoping to find some sleep. Nothing can hurt you in your sleep. Sleep was good.

When after a minute still nobody said anything, he looked up at his parents. They were just staring at him. They looked stunned, and he knew they were at a loss of words.

T.K. nodded to himself and got up from the couch. Carlos gripped his hand.

"T.K. ..."

"No. I said everything there was to be said. Can we please go home now?"

Owen piped up: "T.K.! Please, let us talk this out."

T.K. guessed that there wasn't much to be said if his parents haven't been able to say anything in the past two minutes.

In a calm voice, T.K. answered, without looking at either of his parents: "There is nothing to talk out. You made your decision. And I made mine."

With that, he walked out of the house, not caring if Carlos was following or not.

All he knew was that he needed fresh air, to be able to _breathe_ again.

Although he knew he wouldn't be able to do so for a long time now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this wasn't supposed to have a happy ending because I'm not happy about this baby at all.  
> You have to live with it, I'm sorry lmao
> 
> This also won't be my last Strand-baby fic, I still have at least two ideas of that topic, I just need to find time to write them both 😓 I have some stressful school-weeks ahead of me, so idk when I'll post them.
> 
> Btw, I'd like to hear what you think Owen and Gwen will be naming the baby, I'm kinda curious if they will make the same mistake as they did with T.K. 🤔
> 
> Well, I hope you enjoyed, see you next time :)


End file.
